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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

My three-year-old niece visited us recently and I thought it would be nice to have fresh cinnamon raisin toast for breakfast. As I didn't want to get up four hours before breakfast, I set the timer on my bread machine to finish the bread just before breakfast. Perfect.... Except I wouldn't be awake to add the raisins at the right time. {And not everyone in my household actually likes raisins....}

Next best thing? Cinnamon Bread with Raisin Honey Butter! So I baked my Cinnamon Bread in my bread machine while we were sleeping, and whipped up a batch of this tasty butter while it cooled:

Raisin Honey Butter

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

Mix butter and honey together in a bowl.

Add the vanilla and cinnamon and mix until smooth. Add the raisins and mix until incorporated (just until the raisins begin to break up - much longer and they will become puree!).

Spoon into a bowl and it is ready to serve!

I thought this was a great addition to cinnamon bread. {I used the leftovers in oatmeal chocolate chip raisin cookies - yum!} Simple to make (the ingredients are the title of the recipe!), this butter added just the right flavor to our breakfast.

To enter, link up your recipes, crafts and ideas. And for each link you add, you will get one entry. And if you send over a friend who follows me and adds a comment telling me who sent them, you get an extra entry!

Only a few guidelines:

Please share as many links as you like, but only if you haven't shared them here before.

Add a link back to Tuesday's Table (or grab a button above!) so others can join in the fun.

Follow me via Google+ or Bloglovin.

No other requirements, but visit the other links here, and I'd love for you to sign up for my email reminder here!

Today is the first full day of fall! And to me, fall means I can use my oven again. And that it is time to start making soup. Is there anything that warms the heart better than a bowl of soup? I've rounded up some of my favorite soup recipes to get fall rolling. You're sure to find one to your taste here!

Friday, September 20, 2013

When Julie and Carrie announced that this month's Spiked! Recipe Challenge ingredient would be fall beers, I knew exactly what I would make. Pumpkin Brown Ale Soup. I've made a soup based on one we had at Mesa Grill in Las Vegas several times before, and just knew that the addition of a lovely fall brown ale would be perfect.

Here's the thing. When we went to our local grocery store? Hardly a fall beer in sight. They had a pumpkin ale, which we figured would get lost in the robust spicy flavors of our soup, but nothing else. Not even an Oktoberfest! Apparently, San Diego has not quite hit fall.

We did come across this lovely chocolate porter which struck me as perfectly fall flavored. And a perfect match to my soup!

Chocolate Porter Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

2 cups enriched chicken stock or low sodium canned chicken broth

2 cups Chocolate Porter (or other flavorful dark beer)

3 cups pumpkin puree (not flavored pie filling)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons chipotle puree

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Bring 2 cups of the stock to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat. Whisk in the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, honey, maple syrup and chipotle puree.

Simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the Chocolate Porter.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Strain the soup to remove any solids. {This is a super-important step for a velvety smooth soup!}

Add more stock, if the soup is too thick. Set aside 1/2 cup of the soup.

Whip the cream to soft peaks and gently stir in the soup.

This is just beautiful when served in a glass. Distribute the soup in glasses, leaving room at the top for the cream mixture. {Don't worry if the sides are a bit messy - you can wipe them later before you serve it}

Carefully spoon the cream mixture on top of each serving. It should look a bit like the foam on top of a hearty glass of ale!

I love this pumpkin soup - and the addition of the chocolate porter was wonderful!

Ten years ago today I embarked on the greatest adventure of my life. The Mr and I said "I Do!" and began our life together.

We celebrated with our family and friends. I got to wear a beautiful dress and dance in a room filled with bubbles.

I carried a perfect bouquet of roses and lilies.

Honestly, everything was just perfect. And one of my very favorite things was our toasting champagne punch. We chose green and white for the colors for our wedding. A few months prior to our wedding, we visited some friends in Las Vegas. While there, we tasted this amazing green champagne drink at Rumjungle in Mandalay Bay. I knew it would be perfect for our wedding toast and we set out to recreate the flavors ourselves. Several hours (and quite a lot of champagne and rum) later we were set!

We did serve it at the wedding (after much strong-arming the facility whose management did not want to mix a champagne drink for us) and we liked it so much that we gave individual bottles of champagne to our guests with the recipe attached.

And now I'm sharing it with you here:

Champagne Rum Punch

Ingredients Per Serving:

2 Tablespoons Cruzan Banana Rum

1 1/2 Tablespoons Pineapple Juice

1 Teaspoon Blue Curacao

1/2 Cup Champagne

1 Sugar Cube

Directions:

Combine first four ingredients into a champagne glass. Drop a sugar cube into the glass just before serving.

You'll end up with lovely green glasses of tropically flavored champagne.... with a bit of an extra kick. And when you drink one, give a toast to love and laughter and to happily ever after!

And a Happy Anniversary to The Mr! I love you and cannot wait to see what the next ten years of adventure holds for us!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

We had an apple farm close to where we lived when I was a kid. I loved visiting Aaamodt's Apple Farm in the fall. They had this great tasting room, with barrels of different varieties of apples that we could taste. That room had the best smell! And fresh apples make the very best applesauce.

I made this dessert for my Sunday night dinner last week and it was a hit! They had wonderful flavor from the applesauce, crispy texture from the fried wonton topped with the decadence of caramel sauce. Perfect!

Caramel Applesauce Ravioli

Ingredients:

5 apples {I used Gala apples because they are sweet and have a wonderful crisp texture, but any apple variety that you love will be fantastic}

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 ounces light cream cheese

12 wonton wrappers

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablesppon butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup caramel sauce

Directions:

Quarter and core the apples and place in a saucepan. Add the sugar and vanilla, and add water to just about cover the apples. {This is also amazing with either white or red wine mixed with the water!}

Bring apple mixture to a boil, then let simmer until the liquids are almost gone and the apples are soft.

Remove from the heat and let cool for 15 minutes. Spoon the apples into a food processor or blender. Add cinnamon and cream cheese. Blend until the texture is reasonably smooth. {I like my applesauce to have a bit if texture, but make the texture just as smooth - or not - as you like.}

Lay a wonton wrapper on a dry surface. Put a spoonful of the apple mixure on one half of the wonton wrapper.

Dip your finger into water and wet the edges of the wonton wrapper - this will help it seal.

Fold the wonton wrap over to make a triangle.

Gently press the area around the applesauce mixture to remove the air bubbles.

Press the edges to seal. {I used a ravioli cutter to make a pretty edge, but this isn't necessary.}

Repeat with the remaining wrappers and applesauce mixture.

Heat oil and butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry the wontons (in batches) on each side until they are golden brown.

Sprinkle with sugar just after they are removed from the pan.

Drizzle with caramel sauce and serve warm.

These were delicious, beautiful and deceptively easy. Definitely a recipe to keep! Head over the GYCO to see what other applesauce temptations my fellow bloggers have created.